The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-17
vALEr TN ..BAOK NUMBERS. -

VAbOS In bAUh dumb6hS
A man IN tsw York, known to large circle
OF friends as 'Back-number Budd," deals ex-
clusively in back numbers of newspapers and
other periodicals, and is said to have accumu-
lated small fortune in the business. He has
on hand in his shop ever a million and half
copies of old papers, with duplicates of the
more valuable numbers stored in a fre-proof
building on Long Island. There may be per-
sons so unsophisticated as to wonder what the
demand for such papers can be that makes the
sale of them profitable but it is only neces-
sary to spend few hours in the counting
room of a newspaper to satisfy such curiosity.
Lawyers and their clients want the copies in
which legal advertisements or items bearing
on their cases have sometime been published
the man or woman who has been divorced or
married, or has secured marriage license,
wants paper in which that fact has been
printed; the writer of poem or other literary
gem must have a copy in order to complete
his collection of fugitive verses for publica-
ton in volume. They want back numbers
for every conceivable purpose-as evidence in
court, to 'tsettle a dispute" to fix a
date, to obtain choice morsel for scrap
book, to look for something that Fought to be
there" and last, but not least, to drive the
unfortunate counting-room clerk to madness
by insisting upon the existence of what is
not. Every newspaper answers all these calls
so far as it is able, but not one has ever added
materially to its income by such traffic; far
from it. Mr.. Budd alone has the distinction
of having made the business profitable. He
knows that a rule, when man wants
a paper published three, or FIVE or ten years
back, he wants it badly and is willing to pay
tolerably stiff price rather than miss it.
Mr.. Budd stiffens his price accordingly. Mr..
Jacob Sharp has paid him as high as $75 and
800 for few old copies having in them
items of interest to himself in the trials in
which he has been concerned. New York
aldermen, too, have been ready purchasers
Publishers know the value of certain issues
to would-be purchasers, but, in this part of
the country at least, have never exacted CORE
spending cash equivalent. The individual who
comes to newspaper Office for back numbers
has method of calculation peculiarly his
own. He knows the yearly subscription price
of the papers; he knows that the rate per
copy on day Of publication is two or three or
FIVE cents, as the case may be. He
argues thus: eff the paper when it
is newly issued sells for so much it is much
less valuable to the publisher when old, there
fore copy should cost me nothing" Usual
ly he is persuaded without much difficulty to
pay the regular price, but he does so with an
injured air especially if he 'has been
regular subscriber for twenty years." One of
the peculiarities of the back-number fend,
as the hunter Of old copies is unexpectedly
date of the paper he wants. He is positive
on first demand that it bears a date which he
names. When, after long search among dusty
files, this copy is found it proves to be the
wrong one; the customer blandly explains
that he wants one of day earlier or day
later and calls for both. To ask him to pay
ten cents when he finally secures the right
paper would call forth emphatic protest; to
charge dollar, although it may be worth to
him many dollars, would be regarded some
thing like highway robbery. Mr.. Budd may
do this and make his fortune but he does not
labor under the disadvantages which limit
publishers. Most newspapers would gladly
turn over their stock of back numbers to him
at wholesale rates and rest content if, by
sleepers vigilance aided at times by con-
venient club they can preserve bound volumes
of their publications free from mutilation by
wishing yandals.